It is known to manufacture printed circuit boards by way of a so-called sequentially build up methodology in which at least one outer layer is sequentially added to an already existing printed circuit board core.
Systems for recording electrical circuit patterns on printed circuit board substrates include exposure systems employing projectors and phototool type mask having an image of an electrical circuit formed onto a transparent film.
PCT patent publication WO 00/02424, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a scanning laser direct imaging (LDI) system for writing an electric circuit pattern on a printed circuit board substrate.
FIG. 1 is a reproduction of FIG. 1 of the above referenced publication. Some details of its operation are given below. Further details of the operation and an explanation of the figure can be found in the publication. In such systems, a laser beam or beams, modulated with pattern data, is scanned across a sensitized printed circuit board substrate 78 to write a latent image of a desired electrical circuit pattern.
The substrate is optionally inverted and a second pattern in side to side alignment with the first pattern is written on the other side of the substrate. In accordance with some printed circuit board fabrication techniques, substrate layers may be sequentially laminated to previously produced substrate layers and an electrical circuit pattern is written on the outermost side of each sequentially added layer in a build up fashion. The latent patterns are developed to form etching masks on the substrate. The masked substrate is etched to form the desired electrical circuit pattern.
Among the problems which arise in printed circuit board fabrication is the side to side alignment of printed circuit patterns on various substrate layers, and mutual alignment among patterns printed on various substrate layers. One method utilized to obtain suitable alignment is disclosed in the embodiment of FIGS. 1, 2, 14, 15 and 16, of the publication (FIG. 2 is a reproduction of FIG. 14 of the above referenced publication.). PC board substrate 78 is formed with a plurality of holes 150 at least some of which are preferably aligned, at least roughly, in the scan direction. A base on which the substrate is mounted is formed with openings larger than the holes in the substrate and the holes in the substrate are positioned generally in correspondence to the openings in the base. One or more detectors 152 are positioned below the scan line of the scanner.
As the printed circuit board is transported past the scan line, the scanner scans across the holes in a substrate layer. Based on signals detected by detector 150 via the holes and the openings, the locations of the holes in the substrate layer with respect to the scanner are detected. The base is optionally rotated and scanning of the printed circuit board substrate then commences with the position of the scanning lines pattern being referenced to the location of the holes.
It should be noted that the position of the scanning beam that passes through holes 150 is scanned together with another beam that impinges a scale 80 that is used to determine the true instantaneous (scan dimension) position of the beam in the scan direction. Furthermore, the relative cross-scan position of the holes (and thus the board) is determined utilizing a second scale, typically operatively associated with the base.
When scanning the second side of the substrate, the procedure is repeated to determine the position of the holes and thus the position of the already scanned pattern on the first side of the substrate (or the position of already scanned patterns on lower layers in a build up board) with respect to the coordinate space of the LDI system. This allows for the data in the scanning of each subsequent side to be aligned with respect to previously scanned sides.
Optionally, an additional series of holes in the board and pins on the base, or a guide rail along the base, may be used for rough alignment of the substrate. Such pins are shown in FIG. 16 of the reference. In some conventional systems, only such mechanical means are used for aligning the patterns on the two sides of the substrate. The system may include means for rotating the board to improve alignment.
Measuring systems employing imagers, and especially CCD cameras, are known in the art for use in determining the positioning of a PC board in an LDI scanner. Generally, such cameras may be used to detect various markings on a printed circuit board laminate layer, or to detect an edge of a printed circuit board laminate layer and to relate the detected position of the marking or the edge with a scanner position.